The sport of golf has enjoyed great popularity for many years in a substantial portion of the world population. The game is popular among participants of all age groups and earnestly pursued by individuals of a variety of skill levels extending from the most accomplished professional to the occasional or weekend golfer with very dubious skills. Golf is played on an expansive course usually scenic and extending for substantial distances. The course of often adorned with attractive natural features, landscapes and manmade objects and is organized in a plurality of segments referred to by golfers as "holes". Typically, golf courses are organized in nine hole groups with each hole being numbered. For many golfers, a substantial part of the appeal of golf as a sport or recreational activity is found in the breadth and scope of the typical golf course. Each hole is formed by a very wide irregularly shaped grass portion referred to as a fairway which is bounded on each side by untended areas referred to as roughs. The shape and length of the fairway is varied to provide challenge to the player. However, most fairways extend for distances between one hundred and fifty and two hundred and seventy five yards. Fairways are often provided with additional obstacles such as small ponds, lakes or streams or manmade sand areas known as sandtraps. At the far end of each fairway, a smaller portion known as a green is provided. Upon the green which is formed of a smooth short cut grass having a carpet-like texture a cup or hole is positioned. The cup or hole is usually fitted with a short staff having a numbered flag extending upwardly from the hole. To increase the challenge of the golf game, greens are seldom flat and are usually sloped or contoured making putting thereon challenging.
Each hole is played by initially driving the ball from tee at one end of the fairway toward the green with the eventual object of putting the ball into the hole or cup. The objective of the golfer is to achieve this in as few strokes as possible.
The golfer's skill is tested through a wide range of distances as the golfer employs clubs known as woods for initial long distance shots or drives toward the green followed by shorter closer shots using clubs referred to as irons as the golfers attempts to place the ball upon the green. Once the ball is on the green, the golfer then utilizes a precise club known as a putting iron or putter to stroke the ball into the cup or hole. For many golfers, the long distance drives and middle distance approach shots are exhilarating and fulfilling while the short distance putting activity is met with substantial frustration.
After having successfully moved the ball two hundred and fifty yards down the fairway and onto the green, players are often frustrated at requiring three or four putts to close the final ten yards or so across the green and into the cup.
One the most frequent causes of golfer's frustration in putting is their lack of ability in an activity known as "reading" the green. The process of reading the green refers to the player's activity in analyzing the slope or contour of the portion of the green which their ball traverses during putting in order to reach the cup. Players read this slope or contour and attempt to make compensating adjustment in the direction in which they aim the put and the speed at which they stroke the ball. For example, a player realizing the green slopes downwardly from right to left as he addresses the cup from behind the ball attempts to compensate by putting the ball upwardly against the slope at an angle which directs the ball to the right of the cup anticipating the curved travel of the ball to the left as it heads for the cup. Unfortunately for most players and particularly those who have limited skill levels or infrequent opportunity to play golf, this reading process is difficult.
There arises therefore a need in the art for a golf putting aid which assists the golfer in reading the green prior to attempting to put and which thereby enhances the player's enjoyment of the game.